Mary Ann
Today, President Jimmy Carter will be honored with a state funeral in Washington, DC. He was 100 years old, and his passing marks a generational change. The Greatest Generation is quickly coming to an end. This group of people lived through the Depression, World War II, and help build American to its current greatness. Their hard work, values, and character shaped the following generations, but when they are gone, there will never be another group of Americans like them. Jimmy Carter was one of them. My father was a member as well. They both were born in 1924. Saying goodbye to President Carter was saying goodbye to my father again.
Jimmy Carter was known for his integrity and kindness, his principles and good deeds. He walked his talk, and I have a story about the Carters that illustrates just that.
The summer of 1982 my ex-husband and our family was on route from Charleston, SC to Monterey, CA where he was going to go to The Naval Post Graduate School. On our way to CA, we stopped in PA to visit family and then planned to take the northern route across the country visiting National Parks and other attractions. While we were at my parents’ home, our nine-year-old son was playing touch football in the backyard with some older boys. One of the boys fell into my son’s leg – totally an accident – and both the tibia and fibula were broken requiring surgery. Well, this changed the logistics of the trip. Luckily, we had a station wagon so we could make a bed in the back to enable our son to make the trip. As we travelled westward, the car broke down in Cody, WY. As the car was repaired, we had to entertain our two children, so we ended up at the Buffalo Bill Museum. It is a beautiful museum of the Old West.
This is where the story begins. As we wheeled my son around the museum in a wheelchair, we noticed a group of people at the end of one of the hallways. Within moments several people were making a beeline to us. When the people got to us, we realized it was Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter and some Secret Service guys. Apparently, they were vacationing at one of the dude ranches that was near Cody. They came to meet the child in the wheelchair. They greeted both of my children. President Carter and my ex-husband began talking about the Navy, graduate school, the Naval Academy (both were alums), and the like. Mrs. Carter spoke to me about children, broken legs, and Navy life. She was lovely and gracious. We were in shock that a former president and his wife would speak to us. I didn’t even ask them to sign my son’s cast – a missed piece of history. They visited with us for 15-20 minutes when they had to leave.
I still marvel that they took time to meet the child in the wheelchair and then stayed to speak to all of us. There were no cameras or press around to capture them being just regular people. What a magic moment for my family. As the years passed, and the world got to see this kind couple change people’s lives with their good works, I was not surprised. My family got to see firsthand what they stood for. They were walking their talk, living their values.
Silver Sage Sisters 